


Vinaceous

by SpellCasterLight



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29331549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpellCasterLight/pseuds/SpellCasterLight
Summary: Vinaceous - Relating to wine. [Shino x Tenten]
Relationships: Aburame Shino/Tenten
Kudos: 3





	Vinaceous

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way shape or form. This story is purely for entertainment not profit.
> 
> Author's Notes: Can you imagine being Tenten, Lee or Sakura, and everyone else you know are parts of these big clans, big families with loads of secrets and traditions and, most of them, even being the heir to those clans? I reckon that might feel really lonely and they might even, at a few points, have gotten a little subconsciously defensive about it even? I don't know; just a random thought!
> 
> Pairing Warning: It also goes without saying but if [Shino x Tenten] isn't your thing turn back now.
> 
> Warnings: Alcohol. Swearing.
> 
> Word of the Day: Vinaceous - Relating to wine.

Tenten frowned when no more wine came out of the bottle, she frowned harder when shaking the bottle harder over her glass didn't, suddenly, make more wine appear, and then, after another pause she frowned at her frown.

She looked at the bottle with hazy vision.

"Oh it's empty," the brunette spoke out loud even though no one else was in her apartment but her; she blinked surprised. "I guess I finished it."

She had never been so mad at something she finished a whole bottle before.

"At least I don't think so," the weapons mistress scoffed loudly, the sound reverberating off the walls of her joint kitchen and living room. "Screw you Shino."

At the mere sound of his name, even if it was from her own lips, her face scrunched up in displeasure. She took a swig of the white liquid from her already half empty glass.

This tended to be something she found herself doing when she was really, deeply, frustrated at something, and stabbing unsuspecting trees with kunai didn't make the frustration go away.

She would drink glass after glass of wine while doing laps of her living room shouting at an imaginary version of whatever pissed her off until it was out of her system. Which in the case; happened to be the Aburame heir.

Tenten had just come from an undercover protection mission with the bug user and the other members of his genin team, and it had taken everything in her to remain professional and not grab his head and slam it into a wall with every word of the question "what the hell is your problem?!"; maybe follow it up with a stab in his side with something pointy and sharp.

The image made a giggle erupt out of her.

She had been forced to go undercover as a high lady at a grand ball, the lady in question having received death threats the weeks leading up the event. The days before, and the day of the event, Shino had not stopped; there was no other word for it, _bitching_ at her about everything. The way she wore her hair, her clothes, how she carried herself, how she addressed whoever she was talking too; even how she held her dinner knife! He was lucky she didn't take that knife, no matter how blunt, and stab him in the neck with it.

He was bitching at her so much that Kiba and Hinata even told him to rein it in on multiple occasions; and if Hinata is telling you to stop being an ass then you are _most definitely_ being an ass.

She took an angry gulp of her wine at the memories.

A sudden knock at her front door made her run over to it and open it without a thought to who it might be.

"Hiiiii-oh," she cut off her childish greeting to frown. "It's _you_."

"Tenten; I'm glad you're-have you been drinking?" He suddenly asked and it only made the frown on her face become more pronounced.

"What? You gonna bitch at me for that too?"

She spun on the spot and walked back into her house; he took that as an invitation to walk inside; she probably should have closed the door in his face at her storm off.

"I do not;" he paused and she could have sworn he was looking over her apartment, probably thinking her taste in decorating was as crap as everything else about her. "That word."

"Really? You can't even say the word bitch?" She snorted taking the last swig from her glass. "Must be something us _common_ people do. Bitch bitch bitch bitch bitch," the Team Gai member dumped her now empty glass in the already filled sink with an ungraceful flick of her wrist.

"It has come to my attention; upon reflection;" Shino spoke up making her look at him over her shoulder just as ungracefully as her glass toss. "That my comments might have come across as slightly; judgemental; towards you on this latest mission."

"What was your first clue Shino?" She asked not hiding her sarcastic tone. "Was it me constantly being annoyed at you? Hinata telling you to stop being such a jerk to me? Or was it Kiba _literally_ telling you to shut the hell up multiple times?"

"Just go on," she picked up the empty wine bottle and gave it an even harsher shake than before; air could turn into more wine if you shook the bottle hard enough right? " _Bitch_ at me some more for things I have absolutely _no_ control over."

"Why not yell at me for having brown hair? Or brown eyes? Oh;" she clicked her fingers and pointed at him. "You could yell at me for being a size six shoe even."

She saw his eyebrows come together. "I am not here to do; any; of those things; why would I berate you for things you cannot control?"

"I don't know!" She shouted her fists clenching and arms rising. "You did it enough the last few days! You tell me!"

He removed his hands from his pockets and she saw him run his thumbs over his fingertips; maybe in thought; maybe he was getting ready to summon his hive; who knew. "Explain."

"I am able to look and act the part of a high lady no problem without you making fun of every single twitch of my baby finger! What I _didn't_ need is the constant 'high ladies say this' or 'clan ladies do this'. This may shock and confuse you Shino but guess what. I'm _not_ a high lady _or_ a clan member! I am an orphan with no name so I am well and truly sorry if I don't know my lunch fork from my salad fork just from looking at them for a split second! But I tell you this!" She pointed at him then. "I know enough to fake it for a mission!"

"The difference is-"

"That is _not_ the point Shino! I _know_ you know the difference!" She turned her chin sharply to the side. Her head giving a little jolt at her vision swimming with the motion. "I am mad at you! And I was not done yelling at you when you interrupted!"

"How; did I-?"

"Well; shouting at fake you," she gestured to an empty part of her apartment where the imaginary Shino had stood unmoving, uncaring, earlier when she was yelling.

"You were; pretending; to yell; at me?"

She had never heard him sound so confused.

"Well yes. I, unsurprisingly, get rather _pissed_ off when people non-stop criticize me for three days straight _Shino_."

The weapons user saw his hands clench into fists then; maybe he was going to attack her after all.

"Tenten."

"So I'm sorry I'm not all ' _lady like'_ like the _other_ girls and can't wear my hair _just right,"_ her hands danced around her head meaninglessly. " _Some_ of us grew up in orphanages were we didn't learn how to do our hair all nice and pretty."

"Tenten."

"And I'm _oh so sorry_ I don't have a _fancy title_ mister _clan heir_ like _you,_ and _Shikamaru,_ and _Choji_ and-"

" _Tenten_."

He actually grabbed her wrists to stop her flailing about and forced her to look at him.

"What you are spouting is entirely false; and I do not; appreciate; you saying such things. About me; or yourself."

The Aburame seemed to sigh deeply, his shoulders actually lowering a visible amount and it was such a strange, un-Shino like movement of defeat that it caused her anger to almost disintegrate and a worry for the bug user to settle in her stomach.

"There are a great many things I care about; a great many things about; _you_ ; I care about;" she felt her heart give a rather big thump at that. "You not being from a clan or not being a high lady's daughter are not among them. I was not criticising your abilities; or; your heritage. I simply wanted you to have the knowledge I offered to keep you safe while you were undercover. That was where I was coming from; please; understand that."

"You;" she felt girlie butterflies in her stomach at his words and she hoped it was the wine emphasising their intensity because it sure felt _powerful_. "Just said you care about me."

She watched him nod. "I do," he said it so airily, like it was the most obvious thing.

Her own shoulders slumped and her fingers retreated into her palms to form a light fist, like flowers fading in the cold. "I care about you too Shino. That's why I was so mad-"

"The misunderstanding is cleared up. Does it matter anymore?"

She shook her head lightly, keeping her eyes down, no, she supposed it didn't.

The weapons user felt herself pout childishly and her fingers flexed, her wrists still in his light grip.

"I drank a lot of wine," Tenten confessed randomly, looking towards the green glass bottle on her kitchen isle.

"Yes; please don't do that anymore," she looked back at him at that. "At least not without me; or someone else; here to make sure nothing happens to you."

Her heart gave another deep thump at his concern for her safety.

"But; what if I have to yell at you again? You know;" she jolted her head in the direction of an empty chair. "Fake you."

"I would definitely have it where you talked to the real me instead; especially if there is a serious issue. I would not like there to be any issues between us," his hands grazed up her wrists to hold her hands instead. "I promise you this Tenten; I will always listen."

A happy, lazy smile appeared on her face then.


End file.
